A Test of the Unitary and Collective Models of Household Labour Supply

This paper tests the unitary and the collective household labour supply models within a structural framework. A nonlinear unrestricted household labour supply system is postulated and the set of parametric restrictions imposed by each model is derived. Our results generally reject the income pooling restrictions embodied in the unitary model. Also, the symmetry of cross‐wage effects is rejected. However, the collective model is not rejected for groups with no pre‐school children.